Homebuilders Keep Climbing

By Sam Mamudi

Stocks of some of the biggest homebuilders had a bumper day yesterday, rising more than 5%. Today, the stocks are continuing to see gains, with PulteGroup (PHM) and M.D.C. Holdings (MDC) up about 2.5%, and Lennar Corp. (LEN) and D.R. Horton (DHI) both up 2%.

Homebuilders are one of the big successes of this year’s stock market — PulteGroup is up 190% in 2012 while Lennar’s shares have doubled. Much of that is rebounding off post-crisis and housing bubble lows, but it’s noteworthy that the SPDR S&P Homebuilder ETF (XHB), up nearly 60% in 2012, is now at multi-year highs:

(If we take the chart back another six months, we’d see levels above today’s prices.)

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